Defending Settlement
by See Me Run
Summary: This is my first story so no negative reviews, but please review. This is about four heroes who come upon an Ascalon settlement in need of help against undead hordes but little do they know the undead are brewing a battle that will change their lives. Th
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1**_

**The alarm bells started ringing when the first fireball hit the gates. People were screaming and looking for hiding spots while the soldiers – wounded and healthy alike– were strapping on their armor.**

**"Get to your stations, men!" Captain Greywind commanded his troops. He was yelling this while putting on his own armor. He grabbed his sword and shield from off the ground and started towards an Ascalon ranger.**

**"What's happening? Where are they and how many?" Captain Greywind asked swiftly.**

**"Fire imps are attacking the gate, sir. They are attacking from south hill, and there are two small groups of three," the Ascalon ranger replied without hesitation.**

**Just then, a fireball came from over the gate and headed towards an Ascalon settler. The settler put his arms over his head in fear. The ball of fire struck him and exploded, but instead of a red, fiery explosion it exploded with a blue light. The settler slowly moved his arms down from his head, wondering why he wasn't dead; then started running again towards shelter.**

**"Looks like you need some help, Captain," said a woman wielding a sword as she walked towards Greywind.**

**"Devona! Thank Dwayna you're here. Yes, we do need some help: we are low on soldiers from the last attack. Do you think you could help us get rid of our Imp problem?" Captain asked excitedly.**

**"That should be no problem. Aidan is already out in those woods scouting, and we're heading that way anyway to get him," said a man behind Devona. By his looks, Greywind could automatically tell he was a monk and he was the one who had saved the Ascalon settler.**

**"Thank you, and may Dwayna bless you" Captain Greywind said.**

**"Hey! Do we finally get some action? The walk here was really boring," a young woman said, running up to them.**

**"Cynn, must you be so rude?" Devona said as they walked towards the gate.**

**"Hey, I'm not rude… Just bored," replied Cynn.**

**The three looked around alertly, watching out for any stray fireballs. An Ascalon guard came running through the gates screaming in pain, his armor in flames. A nearby guard grabbed a pail of water and threw it on him, and the flames dissipated. The guard was severely burned, and would probably not live through the night.**

**"Here, let this ease the pain a little," Mhenlo the monk said as he crouched down, speaking an incantation that made a blue aura pass over the guard. Other guards came and helped the injured guard to shelter.**

**The three went through the gate and saw the imps hurling fireballs, setting guards on fire. There were no more guards left to fight, at least not without using the ones protecting the settlement.**

**"This is going to be fun," said Cynn as they ran towards the first group of imps.**

**Devona lashed out with her sword on the first imp, cutting it in half from the shoulder, the discolored blood spraying out. Going towards the second one, Devona felt her adrenaline pumping; a familiar blue aura swept over her, giving her even more power. She was hit with a fireball, but it just exploded around her, again with a blue aura. "Gotta love the monk," she grunted while she cut through the second imp. She was about to spin and cut the third one down, but right before she swung, another fireball, bigger than the imps, exploded the imp into a bubbling piece of flesh.**

**"Leave some fun for me," Cynn yelled with a grin, after hitting the imp with the fireball. She looked toward the second group of imps, and started whispering an incantation. When she finished she looked up and saw the meteor she summoned falling from the sky. The meteor fell onto one of the imps, crushing it and knocking the adjacent imps down. While they were down, Devona took the few precious seconds to bring her sword down, cutting the imp in half through the waist. The last imp lashed out with a claw and cut through Devona's skin, but as fast as it got cut Mhenlo was there to patch it back up. The ground suddenly lit up with flames around Devona, burning the last imp to a crisp.**

**"That's the last of them," said Mhenlo, while looking around to see if any imps were remaining.**

**"Good. Let's go tell Captain Greywind the job's done and then we can go get Aidan," said Devona while turning back to the gate.**

**"Hopefully he's doing ok by himself," said Cynn.**

**"Hey, you're actually caring about someone else!" commented Mhenlo with a grin.**

**"Oh, shut up Mhenlo," said Cynn, grinning herself.**

**The three started heading back towards the gate, where they met Captain Greywind.**

**"The imps are take care of, sir," said Devona.**

**"Thank you. When you get to Aidan, say hi to him for me please," replied Greywind. "Also, here's some gold for doing the job." **

**"We will, and thank you for the gold," said Devona as she took the bag of gold.**

**While walking through the gate, Mhenlo heard Captain Greywind shouting at them to come back. They turned back and saw Greywind running at them.**

**"One other thing: I heard from one of my scouts that the undead general 'Gronan The Vile' was roaming around near Lions Arch," Captain Greywind said. "Be careful. You three are some of Ascalon's best!"**

**"Thank you for the information, Captain," said Devona.**

**While walking away, Cynn said, "We should hurry. Aidan is supposed to be scouting around Lions Arch."**

**The three walked into the forest and disappeared among the leaves.**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

**"We should set up camp there and take a rest," said Devona pointing at a small clearing in the woods.**

**"Yes, that's a good spot, I'll go get some fire wood," said Mhenlo. **

"**Oh, I'll come too, wait up!" said Cynn chasing after him.**

**Cynn and Mhenlo were walking from their camp and both of them spotted a small pile of twigs and wood. They started picking them up when they heard some yelling and growling. Both of them jumped, dropping their twigs and woods.**

**"What was that?" said Cynn while looking around.**

**"I don't know, but it sounded like a cry for help and it seemed awfully familiar," replied Mhenlo slowly.**

**The yelling and growling stopped, so they went back to getting fire wood. Suddenly Mhenlo dropped his wood and bolted upright and yelled in shocked, "Cynn, that voice was Aidain's!"**

**"Are you sure?" exclaimed Cynn, shocked also, dropping her wood. She ran to Mhenlo's side, and she said, "Think we should go back and get Devona?"**

**"No, I don't think there is enough time. We need to go now," said Mhenlo, picking up his staff. The two started towards the source of the yell. **

**While running through the trees, Mhenlo spotted a White Mantle patrol team battling a group of Grasping Ghoul, and one of the White Mantle had already been killed.**

**"I think we should help them," said Cynn, staring at the Grasping Ghouls.**

**"There is not enough time, we need to get to Aidan or he might die!" shouted Mhenlo.**

**"Well, you can go, but I'm not leaving these men to die," replied Cynn as she took off towards the battle.**

**"Argh, she can be such a nuisance!" exclaimed Mhenlo, following her.**

**When he got there he saw Cynn preparing a fireball for one of the Grasping Ghoul. There were three White Mantle left and two Grasping Ghoul still remaining.**

**Cynn just finished her incantation, and hurled the fireball at the Grasping Ghoul just as one of the White Mantle was struck down. The ball of flame caused the Grasping Ghoul to explode and disintegrated the creature instantly.**

**"May Dwayna protect you," said Henlo as he casted a protection spell on one of the White Mantle. The spell was just in time, for just then, the remaining Grasping Ghoul swiped at the White Mantle and struck it but the blow bounced off the magically enhanced skin.**

**Then, three more Grasping Ghoul dug up from under the ground and came up behind the White Mantle.**

**"No!" Shouted Cynn as the two White Mantle were struck down by the other three Grasping Ghoul.**

**All four Grasping Ghoul heard her shout and began advancing on Cynn and Mhenlo.**

**"Uh oh, now you've done it.," said Mhenlo as he slowly backing up.**

**"Hmph, four versus two. I like these odds," said Cynn with a smile on her face.**

**She started another incantation and finished quickly, but instead of a fireball coming out of her hands, one of the Grasping Ghoul suddenly burst into flame and slowly melted.**

**"May you burn in hell, creature," said Cynn as she watched it burn to death.**

**Cynn and Mhenlo started backing up defensively, and the three remaining Grasping Ghoul were getting closer.**

**"I wished Devona was here," said Mhenlo quietly as he was thinking about putting some protection spells on himself and running.**

**His wish came true, for he saw Devona burst from some bushes and bring her sword down on one of the Grasping Ghoul. The Grasping Ghouls were a little faster though, and it jumped out of the way. She brought it back up, slicing through a different Ghoul. Mhenlo started putting a protection spell on her and with perfect timing, because right after the incantation, the Grasping Ghoul behind her brought down it's 6 inch claws onto her unprotected back, but it bounced off her now shielded skin. She spun around and stabbed the creature right through the front of it's face and the tip of her sword exited through the back, spraying the black blood everywhere.**

**Her sword was caught in the Ghoul's skull, and while trying to wrench it out the last Ghoul came up behind her and was about to strike when it burst into flames from another one of Cynn's spells.**

**After getting her sword out of the skull she turned towards Mhenlo and Cynn and started shouting at them.**

**"Why did you guys run off like that? You were supposed to bring the wood right back, not run off." **

**"Sorry, but we heard Aidan and it sounded like she was being attacked and crying for help so we to investigate, but then we saw this White Mantle patrol being attacked, and we had to try and help, but we didn't expect those three Ghouls to come up from the ground," replied Cynn sheepishly in one long breath.**

"**Wait, you heard Aidan," asked Devona.**

**"Yes, and he still might be in trouble so we should get going," said Mhenlo.**

**"Ok, lead the way Cynn," said Devona as she wiped off her sword with a cloth.**

**They ran for about half an hour when Mhenlo said, "Wait, listen, I hear someone."**

**The sound was someone groaning in pain. Cynn looked around and saw a small pile of maybe four or five Undead Skeleton Rangers with arrows sticking out of their sides, but beside it sitting by a tree was…**

**"Aidan! What happened!" said Cynn as she and the other two ran towards the heavily breathing Aidan.**

**"Mm… ouch! I was scouting about two miles from... Lions Arch when I saw the undead general, Gronan The Vile, walking… around the swamps with some skeleton rangers. I thought I was well hidden, but then a imp came up …behind me and I heard it's wings fluttering so I killed it but it must….. have been too loud because it alerted Gronan. I started running and 4 of them came after me. Gronan The Vile stayed ran away. I had… a little trouble killing the four rangers—" he groaned "—ouch as you can see," said Aidan as he pulled out an arrow that was sticking from his thigh. "Damn, poison arrow…Heh, guess I'll be out for a little...bit…" While saying this, Aidan started to fall over and he fell unconscious.**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

**"Wake up… Wake up!" Yelled Cynn as she shook Aidan.**

**"Don't yell, Cynn, there might be more rangers. The Ascalon settlement is still close by. Let's take him there for shelter and then we'll go find Gronan and kill him!" said Devona.**

**Cynn and Devona picked up Aidan while Mhenlo picked up his bow and his quiver of arrows. While getting his things together Mhenlo spotted a familiar bottle, Aidan's Troll Unguent he thought. He picked it up then opened it and smelled it. He drew his head away in disgust as the smell of troll blood filled his nostrils and he quickly put the cork back in.**

**"Good thing we found him, looks like he was on his last bottle of Trolls Unguent," said Mhenlo while holding up the bottle.**

**"Mhenlo, is there anything you can do for Aidan?" asked Devona.**

**"No, my powers cannot do anything at this point, but I can take out the poison," replied Mhenlo.**

**He walked over to Devona and Cynn and while they were holding Aidan he put his hands over his unconscious body and chanted a spell in which it drew the poison out of his body and also stitched up some of his smaller wounds.**

**Some of the blood was already drying so the three hurried back to the Ascalon Settlement.**

**"Devona, Cynn, Mhenlo, why are you back so soon?" asked Captain Greywind as they approached the gate.**

**"We found Aidan and he's been seriously wounded. May we leave him here to rest while we go out and find Gronan?" asked Devona.**

**"Why, of course. While you're gone, one of my monks will attend to Aidan," said Captain Greywind.**

**They entered the Ascalon settlement and put Aidan into one of the huts. While walking away from the settlement they began to make a plan.**

**"Ok, Gronan's probably going to have some undead warriors guarding him, so we'll take them out first. We won't have to worry about long range attacks because Aidan took care of that. After taking out the warriors we'll go for Gronan," said Devona as they made their way into the forest. **

**They went to where they last saw Aidan and started searching from there. They went west from the pile of skeleton rangers. Devona took some ranger skills from Aidan and knew how to track things. She looked down and saw footprints leading into the swamp.**

**"We should head to the swamp. That's our best bet," said Devona pointing south-west.**

**They walked for an hour and then saw the swamp just over a small hill. Mhenlo looked around for any sight of the undead general. Just then he saw Cynn getting up behind the hill they were hiding behind and started walking towards a tree.**

**"Cynn! What are you doing!" whispered Mhenlo.**

**"I think I saw an undead warrior over there, I'm going to go see if I can get a better view," replied Cynn in a quiet voice.**

**Just as she was getting to the next farthest tree she stepped on a twig that snapped loudly. She winced as the crack echoed trough the forest.**

**She turned around facing Devona and Mhenlo and whispered "Sorry!" with a sheepish look on her face.**

**After turning back to find the general an arrow came whizzing from inside the forest and struck the tree beside Cynn. She looked at the tree with the arrow with a shocked face.**

**"Cynn, run back to the hill!" yelled Devona.**

**Cynn turned and ran towards the other two and hid behind the hill.**

**"Wasn't my fault" Cynn said.**

**Volleys of arrows flew over their heads. They ducked even lower.**

**"We'll go around the other side and try and ambush them," said Devona as another arrow whizzed by.**

**They went around the right side and looked at where the arrows were coming from.**

**"It's general Gronan alright and it looks like he has some help," said Devona.**

**"How many?" Mhenlo asked.**

**"There are two undead sorcerers and two rangers," replied Devona. "I'll take out the warrior. Cynn, can you handle the sorcerers?"**

**"Of course I can," Cynn said with a smile.**

**"Ok, Mhenlo, get ready to put on some protective spells on me and get ready to raise any hex spells," Devona said as she unsheathed her sword.**

**They ran out from behind the hill and the undead spotted them, and then proceeded to fire their arrows at them. One hit Devona, but bounced off her armor, and another one went by Cynn which got her angry. She stopped and did an incantation that sent raining balls of fire from the sky upon the undead striking two of them down. Mhenlo started a protection spell as Devona ran towards the ranger. When she got about five feet from the warrior she felt really slow and sluggish. The sorcerer put a hex spell on her that slowed her down but Mhenlo was there to take it off her. An arrow was shot at Devona and punched through her leg,**

**"Ahhhh!" She screamed in pain holding her leg.**

**Her movements were crippled now and she limped towards the ranger and brought up her sword. A blue aura swept over her giving her energy back that was stolen by the sorcerer. She put her strength into the swing and cut off the head of the ranger. Cynn had just finished her incantation and a flame curled out of her hands towards one of the sorcerers and exploded it into a pile of bones. Devona turned and faced general Gronan. **

**"You shall pay for what you did to our friend!" She yelled as she advanced on the lone general.**

**"If you slay me, my undead army will destroy the Ascalon settlement!" yelled the general in a growl.**

**Gronan swung his sword at Devona, but she blocked it and went to stab at his unprotected chest. Gronan was skilled with a sword, too, and effortlessly blocked her attack. However, Cynn saw her struggling and put a fire spell on Gronan that made him burst into flames. Devona saw this as her chance and kicked Gronan down and stepped on his chest just as the flames disappeared.**

**"Call off you're army," Devona said to Gronan**

**Gronan started chuckling then laughed devilishly.**

**"It's too late. The army is already advancing on your little settlement!" said Gronan. "You want to kill me for the honor. The glory?"**

**"No, it's revenge for our friend," said Devona. **

**After talking she stabbed her sword through his chest killing him instantly.**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

**The three heroes ran back to the camp and went directly to check up on Aidan. The found him in one of the huts with a monk standing in the doorway.**

**"How's he doing?" Asked Devona**

**"He's doing much better. You wouldn't happen to have his Troll's Unguent would you?" the monk asked.**

**"Yes, actually we do," said Mhenlo handing her the bottle.**

**The monk went in and gave Aidan the bottle and he downed it easily.**

**"How you been doing? Have they fed you?" asked Devona.**

**"Yes, they have and I've been doing a lot better. Thanks for the save in the woods," replied Aidan. "I'll be ok to go tomorrow morning."**

**"Well you can't, we have to help protect the settlement. Gronan sent an undead army to attack before he died," said Devona.**

**"Oh, ok well I'll set up some traps tomorrow morning," said Aidan.**

**"Yes! More action!" yelled Cynn**

**"You're such a child," said Mhenlo while rolling his eyes.**

**"Thhbbbt," said Cynn sticking out her tongue.**

**"Ok, well if you guys are done playing around let's get some rest, we got a big battle ahead of us," said Devon while taking off her armor.**

**"Yeah, good idea, I'm really tired," said Cynn, yawning.**

**Meanwhile far down south a battle was brewing up.**

**"We will CRUSH the Ascalon Settlement! We will CRUSH anyone who opposes us! We will KILL every settler we see! Let no one live!" screamed an undead general. "We will avenge general Gronan!"**

**In front of him were almost 80 undead soldiers, sorcerers, grasping ghouls, and rangers screaming and growling. **

**They were ready to fight, they were ready to die, they were ready for their revenge.**


End file.
